After England lost their World Cup semi-final against Croatia, footage emerged of some sneaky, desperate tactics by the Three Lions.

Croatia celebrated wildly following Mario Mandzukic's decisive winner in extra-time courtesy of some lax defending from England's John Stones.

But now chasing a 2-1 deficit with time ticking away, the English tried to pounce while the jubilant Croatia squad played stacks-on after their goal.

Footage from the match later revealed England players hurriedly kicking off and Marcus Rashford trying to run in an easy goal as Croatia were still busy back-slapping each other.

(Twitter)

The cheeky tactic stems from the much-debated FIFA rule which made headlines in the first week of the tournament, and subsequent media speculation over whether a team can kick-off while their opposition is distracted celebrating a goal off the field of play. The story quickly went viral and did cause some confusion among teams at the World Cup in Russia.

For instance after Cristiano Ronaldo's equaliser in their draw with Spain and Harry Kane's header that gave England victory over Tunisia, both sides celebrated enthusiastically off the pitch but deliberately made sure at least one player (not the goalkeeper) remained on the field to stop their opposition from taking a kick-off before they were ready to resume play.

Referees in the semi-final quickly stopped England as they tried to runaway and score, but even if it was allowed, replays showed Jesse Lingard had passed to Rashford while he was in an off-side position, so it wouldn't have counted anyway.

England of course went on to lose the match, and will now play Belgium in the third-place decider.